


Perchance to Seem

by daredevilmoon



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: M/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 19:18:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3821803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daredevilmoon/pseuds/daredevilmoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just before dinner.</p><p>  <i>“I’ve got a duke to undress just after this. I’ve to dress him directly after, but I might enjoy myself all the same.”</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Perchance to Seem

“You’ll want a shave before dinner,” Thomas said, running his fingertips along Philip’s jaw. It shifted slightly beneath a smile and Thomas leaned forward impulsively, placing a slowly dragging kiss along the same route to feel the prickle of short hair beneath his lips. He felt Philip’s breath hitch a moment as they broke apart. “I’ll do it.”  
  
“You needn’t,” Philip said. Thomas turned to him, brows raised, as he walked to the table.  
  
“I’ll do it,” he repeated with a smirk. Philip’s wonderfully dark eyes searched him a moment before he followed him over, standing near to him while Thomas worked the soap into a lather. It seemed strange, even that brief distance between them; his thoughts flitted back to the previous year, to the utter constancy of Philip’s touch. He glanced over to find Philip watching him and was greeted with a small, slightly sad-looking, smile. Thomas’s brows furrowed. “Is something wrong?”  
  
“No,” Philip replied. As if sensing what the matter was, he reached out and slid his hand beneath Thomas’s jacket and vest, resting it on the curve of his back until he was finished with the soap. “Lady Mary’s perfectly fine company. There’s something to be said for that.”  
  
“So it’s just the noose tightening?” Thomas asked, running the soaped brush along Philip’s cheek. There was no reply for a moment, running the brush near to Philip’s mouth as he was, and he took the opportunity of catching the light in his eyes, which shone a fitting sort of gold close up that one mightn’t have expected. A smile flickered over Thomas’s mouth before it relaxed again.  
  
“I daresay. It’s all rather daunting when it’s so - imminent,” Philip said, his voice lifted on a breathless laugh. “Ideas are usually much more bearable than the facts.”  
  
“I’d bloody think so here,” Thomas said, exchanging the soap for the razor. He tilted Philip’s head to the side and wondered at something. “Have you been to bed with a woman yet?”  
  
“Don’t ask me that with a razor to my throat,” Philip said, giving a genuine, surprised laugh - the sort that transformed his features and made Thomas’s heart throb like a maid’s. “I haven’t, no. Have you?”  
  
“What would I do that for? Stop smiling so I can get on,” Thomas rejoined, though he was grinning himself. Philip took a breath and steadied, turning back to the direction which Thomas had directed; pleasure came over him at that. “I’ve got better things to do than this.”  
  
Philip hummed inquisitively, the vibrations of which ran through Thomas’s fingers as he lay the first few strokes.  
  
“Oh, yes,” Thomas confirmed, shaking the blade through the basin of water on the table. “I’ve got a duke to undress just after this. I’ve to dress him directly after, but I might enjoy myself all the same.”  
  
Philip gave no response to that and Thomas wondered briefly whether he was somehow overstepping whatever boundaries Philip had lain; then, the idea seemed absurd and made a drop of bitterness fall into Thomas’s stomach. He’d certainly done more than _joke_ about undressing a duke.  
  
He took a step nearer to Philip as if in challenge, near enough for it to be slightly awkward for the last few passes of the razor, but perfect for feeling the heat of the other’s body. Finished, Thomas wiped any remaining soap from Philip’s face, pouring bay rum into his hands before smoothing it over the freshly-shaven skin; he felt Philip’s jaw tighten against it. Purposefully, Thomas slid both hands into Philip’s hair and tilted his head back for a kiss.  
  
To his relief, Philip’s body relaxed into his as it hadn’t yet this visit; god, Thomas longed for the night, longed for those summer-heat sort of lingering caresses which weren’t so rushed as this.  
  
“Thomas,” Philip gasped, breaking away. His eyes looked over Thomas’s face once more and he placed another quick, soft kiss against Thomas’s mouth. Thomas’s hands travelled to the buttons of his vest and undid them, watching the way his face flickered beneath the promise of each one further undone. “I - “  
  
“I’m only valeting you, Philip,” Thomas said, catching him. He slid the vest from his shoulders and let it lay on the table as it was; he loved the game of it all.  
  
“Is this how you valet all of the guests to Downton?” Philip asked, a teasing smile beginning on his mouth. Thomas pressed their mouths together as he began to unbutton his shirt, slipping his hand beneath to feel the warmth of his skin beneath the thin undershirt.  
  
“Only the ones I like the look of,” Thomas replied, grinning against the kiss before he pulled back, enough to allow his hands to begin to undo Philip’s trousers. Philip leaned his head forward against Thomas’s shoulder and sighed quietly.  
  
“You’re wonderfully distracting,” he murmured pleasantly, stilling Thomas’s movements. “But I mustn’t be quite so distracted this evening.”  
  
“I want you to think of me all through dinner,” Thomas teased. He rested their heads together.  
  
“I imagine I’ll think of you all through dinner regardless. I imagine a great many do. You’re a work of art.”  
  
Thomas’s heart fluttered at that; he’d been complimented on his looks before, but never with such an intensity as by Philip. Such things had been repeated in their letters, but to hear them once more atop the soft curve of Philip’s voice was - precisely what Thomas wanted. He planted a kiss on Philip’s ear. “I have missed you.”


End file.
